The primary difference, and reason for me to relocate to a new thread, is because these is a SPONSORED log, and instead of using pure D-AA from Ai Sports Nutrition, I will be using the said D-POL from Purus labs. Very exciting stuff.

Background/Stats:

I am 21 years old and currently am attending my 4th year at CU Boulder, graduating with a BAS in Economics with a minor in Computer Science. I have a girlfriend of 6 years that I live with, and a cat named Alexander that just turned 1 last May. Oh how time flies. I have a genuine interest in self improvement, philosophy, and economics. Bodybuilding is just an extension of the first and an application of the second two. I also Lennon producing music, but I usually don't have the luxury to just waste hours writing and producing music anymore.

Currently, I am trying to cut down a little more these final 4 weeks here before reverse dieting. I have been lifting seriously intermittently for the past 6 years but have dedicated my lifestyle completely- weighing all my food, logging my progress, sacrificing to win, etc etc for the past year and a half now with the goal to be focused around bodybuilding (natural). Do not confuse this with only training for ~1 year.

Lifting has been a huge interest for the entire spam and I have been reading various books and have taken related college courses pertaining to bodybuilding, kinesiology, physiology, nutrition for the 5 year span- I have merely fallen out of consistency, until this last year and a half or so. That being said, I have looked at my priorities and have re-aligned them since, growing up a lot and learning a lot about myself, and at this point I see myself doing this for the rest of my life.

I am fairly low already, hovering around 6%, and my caliper actually says 5%... but I am not sure I believe that. Currently, I weigh 223.6 @ 6'4" with a low of 222.8 last week. I have visibly noticed me lean out since.

Here are some pictures of me from last week:

These are stupidly blurry and in bad lighting, and I was actually bloated during these.

Goals:

My primary goal is to obviously cut down more in the last 4 weeks of my cut. Secondarily, I'd like to really see the effects if the stack prescribed, and be able to log eternally on the Internet whether these 2 products are worth the investment or not. I have used EP before, and would recommend it to most intermediates and a lot of beginners, however I am NOT sure if this particular stack is synergistically worthwhile. I have used DAA alone and with EP now and have enjoyed it with mild GI issues, and I am excited to see if DPOL will really make a difference- especially pre-workout.

So how do I go about this? With a strict lifting/cardio routine, diet, and supplementation plan!!!!

Routine:

Here is basically what I will be doing. It's a 6-7 day/week routine where I only take a rest day when I feel necessary. Essentially, it's a 3 day/week full body split into 6 days at an intermediate level. I like this, as if you actually analyze the routine (made myself) you'll see that it cycles through heavy/light rep schemes while varying the total volume by +33% for either upper or lower due to it being a 6 day split that I work through typically everyday. So one week I'll hit upper 3 times, others ill hit it 4, and the same applies for lower. It's nice momentary weekly emphasis on different body parts. I may edit it a little in the future, but this style is near perfect.

Unfortunately, there is a picture limit per post, so I will reveal it as I go due to not wanting to type it all out at the moment.

Cardio:

My cardio now consists of an every other day rotation between longer steady state walking and jogging intervals.

Cardio B) 20 total minutes of 1 minute walking as prescribed in A, and 4 minutes of jogging at the same incline but @ 6.5mph.
0:00 WALK
1:00 RUN
5:00 WALK
6:00 RUN
10:00 WALK
10:30 RUN
12:30 WALK
13:00 RUN
15:00 WALK
15:30 RUN
17:30 WALK
18:00 RUN
20:00 DONE

This burns much more than 200-250.

The reason I vary them is for two reasons. Typically around 450 calories. If I do intervals everyday I burn out with the high frequency of training. So what I'll do is basically the steady state on leg days and the intervals on upper, to avoid overtraining.

Diet:

Despite the variance in caloric need due to higher workloads on upper days from intervals as well as working push and pull muscles, I keep my calories the same. The body, from my knowledge, doesn't mind the discrepancy of 200-300 calories and it averages out, allowing me to recover more so on leg days- which I like because I'm moving more weight with bigger muscles.

The diet itself ranges from 2400-2500 calories for no specific reason. Typically I do not hit 2500 and it just makes meal planning more flexible. The anal part of this regimen comes into play when it comes to carb cycling. From what I have gathered from Lyle McDonald's literature weight loss is optimal when there are low carb days with less than 20% of calories coming from carbs 4 days in a row. To maintain sanity as well as implicitly carb loading I will be incorporating a plan of 4 days low carb (near keto, starting today) to be followed by 3-4 days of regular dieting with about 50-70g of fat, at least 238g of complete protein, 38-45g of fiber, and filling the rest up with carbs.

I took my Erase Pro with D-Pol roughly 20 minutes before my workout.
With it, I took a cap of fish oil with 1.2g of epimedium, 2.5 tablespoons of CoQ10, 3G beta alanine, 5g creatine monohydrate, 5g leucine, 3g of HMB, and 760mg of Agmatine sulfate and some HICA.

It should be noted that I tore both hamstrings, one in 2 places about one month into my cut. I still trying to go easy, and this can be seen as my weights are still steadily going up on compound leg lifts during a cut. Better safe than sorry.

Initial impression if D-Pol:

Honestly it was a mild let down. I did not feel anything crazy nor was I pumped up more than usual. Everything I took beforehand I normally take, and so with the D-Pol stacked, I would hope that I would be flying, but I wasn't. I am hoping that as I keep taking it, I will feel it more.

Additionally, I am slightly concerned as to whether I should be taking D-pol with other amino acids. Yes, the directions say to take it with a meal, but that's for the vitamin D to break down. I have read that if DAA is taken with other aminos it essentially blocks it from acting out any unique attributes due to the bodies amino acid receptors (I forget the name, I believe pepsin-related) being cluttered with other aminos.

If anyone had any input on this, it would be greatly appreciated. Obviously it has allegedly, or anecdotally worked when prescribing by the instructions in the label, but I am unsure regardless. I would prefer real literature rather than reps and anecdotal opinion on this. I may have to resort to taking my leucine during my workout due to this.

Cardio:
I did my steady cardio immediately after today.

Diet:

This is what I ate today. As described earlier I am sticking to a low carb, borderline keto diet for today and the concurring 3 days.

My initial impression of D Pol is unfortunately underwhelming, the taste is.... Tolerable and weird. Fake off sweet but tastes like nothing compared to its creamy weird smell. Hopefully it will grow on me.

If its straight forward for you to consume your leucine during training, then by all means id do that if its going to remove any doubt you many have of dpol's efficacy. If Anything you'll feel much happier going about it that way

I woke up this morning at 6am with a slight change in perspective. Typically, I do cardio in the morning and lift later in the day after my responsibilities, so I realized that I could actually adopt my old supplementation protocol of EP and now DAA through taking these simply pre workout.

Pre-Cardio:
Epimedium for NO release (1.2g) and other a-Androreceptor antagonist properties, 150mg of CoQ for stamina, my Erase Pro (1pill) and a scoop of D-Pol chased with a can of Pepsi max (for the caffeine and carbonation to aid in nutrient delivery).
I found this really helped and made me feel better.

Pre-Cardio D-Pol Impression:
The D-Poll seemed to kick in a little 1/3-1/2 way trough but honestly I don't see much stimulation, I believe it's more of a mental focus if anything, which is fine. The taste however is just as I had previously described... Weird, off, and unwelcome, lol. I had my girlfriend take a whiff of the stuff and she likes all KINDS of sweet ish. She initially made a happy face, only to quickly change to a scrunched up icky one. Kind of cute.

Also, I am really wondering how this is supposed to be 30 servings, I am sure the short squatty design of the container is deceiving, but it seems like I may only get 2 weeks out of it at one a day. I will remain optimistic.

Cardio:
Was a little tougher than normal simply due to having a dry raspy, slightly swollen feeling throat upon waking up. I am coughing up large hard brownish chunks and its kinda shi.ty. The machine said I only burned 260 kcals, but when I was able to enter my weight last time it was like 200 calories more- doesn't matter really though as if I am consistent and progress relatively, the actual amount doesn't really matter. Here are the intervals:
0:00 WALK
1:00 RUN
5:00 WALK
6:00 RUN
10:00 WALK
10:30 RUN
12:30 WALK
13:00 RUN
15:00 WALK
15:30 RUN
17:30 WALK
18:00 RUN
20:00 DONE

I will update this log further as the details roll in throughout the day. It's easier to be more thyroid and reflective if I do it shortly after each segment.

So far is rate the STACK at a 6-7, EP an 8-9, and D-Pol a 5-6. It's predominately DAA with a b complex and vD, and tastes odd. I still would like to assume the effects of it all in one package will accumulate more throughout this cycle.

Weight:
I have been having some weird GI issues these past 4-5 weeks. Some run like clockwork, and despite incredible consistency I do not. This fosters into some frustration as weight fluctuates or stagnates unevenly. Luckily, I fast.

Today was a good example of this. I woke up, went to the bathroom- not urged but knew I should and still felt bloated after. I ran and when I came back I was 223.6- the same weight from the last 2 days and still slightly above my record low of 228.8. Not ok with this I went on throughout my day, not eating or drinking (minus a cup of coffee) and after waking up from my nap...

A new record low! 221.6! I ate late last night in a 2 hour window, literally finishing my last shake in bed before turning off the lights, so this weight seems more accurate given I've actually had time to digest my food.

If this part is too much info for you, you may need to leave. It's a huge factor in weight (anyone's really) during a cut and is essential that it is taken into account to properly gauge progress or lacktherof.

This next exercise is listed incorrectly in the pic due to not having the appropriate option in the app. I like these as it hits my middle&lower traps along with teres major giving my middle-upper back a great stretch. I don't know of anyone else that does these as I kinda made it up.

So today was the second day of low carbs. Below is a few pictures that describe it better than in can... I ate this all in roughly two hours.

I made a choice to jazz up my fatty diet by buying a huge ham shank, unfortunately I worry a little bit now due to noticing the inconsistency of meat type what with the pink of the ham fading to white in some parts, the hard skin, and the pure white fat parts.

This worries me because I don't want to be miscalculating my macros. It's protein and fat, which means it could vary in calories by like, 50% or more. This could be detrimental to my last 4 weeks. To curb this, I prepped the whole shank by chopping it up into bite size prices and mixing it all around, hopefully bringing it closer to this average. I might say screw it and just play it safe by baking it all and getting some of the fat out, but then this could mess me up too. Or I may pull it all out of the containers and chop it up into small bits to be even more safe. Maybe I'm over thinking it.

Well that's definitely bazaar. It's just, weird lol.
My girlfriend found it gross as well so maybe it's just the climate.
It's great to what from ya'll. I had a horrible day (from my car dying to not getting a "delivered" package- f FedEx AND USPS)... I'll be more thorough tomorrow.

Lol I'm just being an a$$. It's a local rec center (Rude's) it's actually pretty old school and awesome in there- and it's literally two blocks from where I live so it's the best choice.

Just looked into armbrust and its a 15 minute drive, and like 50% pricier.

Haha no worries man, I don't even lift at the rec. Either 24 hour or my backyard (although this rain is making lifting outside impossible). I just looked up Rude's and the one pic of the weight room looked pretty nice. I just started getting back into lifting about last November so I wasn't sure of what hardcore gyms were around here.

Haha no worries man, I don't even lift at the rec. Either 24 hour or my backyard (although this rain is making lifting outside impossible). I just looked up Rude's and the one pic of the weight room looked pretty nice. I just started getting back into lifting about last November so I wasn't sure of what hardcore gyms were around here.

Honestly armbrust is just kind of a fluffy gym. It's like BSN noxplode. Super overhyped with little substance. Rude has everything I need,
ever wanted, and is fairly hardcore- chipped mismatched plates and worn bars and serious lifters. No frills, barebones, and gets it done.

But yeah I honestly go to CUs rec and can't stand the douches and pussies. Nobody is even in good shape really.